this is bbc news. i'm monika plaha. our top stories: donald trump will appear in court on tuesday as he becomes the first former us president to face criminal charges. the unprecedented indictment of a former president of the united states for a campaign finance issue is an outrage. a huge tornado has hit the us city of little rock in arkansas. the governor declares a state of emergency. social media personality andrew tate has been released from prison to house arrest before further court hearings. a warning that rapidly melting ice in antarctica is slowing down deep ocean currents, which could have devastating impacts for

the world's climate. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. first, "upset, angry, but not worried" — that's how donald trump's lawyer has described the former us president's reaction to his indictment by a new york court. he will appear there on tuesday, charged with falsifying business records. at least one felony offence is included — that could result in a jail sentence. it's all linked to alleged hush money paid by mr trump to the former porn star stormy daniels. our north america correspondent gary o'donoghue reports from new york. this manhattan courthouse doesn't normally look like this. but then, it's not every day a former president gets charged

with a crime — in fact, it's never happened before. and this is the man who's brought the charges against donald trump — district attorney alvin bragg, a democrat and a prosecutor in america's highly politicised legal system. but if mr bragg was saying nothing, the former president wasn't so reticent. he's called it... ..and his opponents: no—one is above the law, not even a former president of the united states. the case all centres on the financial accounting for $130,000 paid to this woman to buy her silence before the 2016 general election. hi, everyone! stephanie clifford — aka stormy daniels, an adult film star — says she had sex with donald trump in 2006 — something he denies. today, it's donald trump. tomorrow, it's going to be a democrat.

the day after that, it could be your brother, your son, your daughter. and we have to be concerned about the rule of law falling because what's happened here is this is a case that would not have been brought against another individual in this country if his name wasn't donald trump. in the next few days, donald trump will come here to the courthouse. he'll have his fingerprints and his photograph taken. he'll then appear before a judge to enter a plea. until recently the most powerful man in the world will be processed like any other defendant. it's finally good to see somejustice happen. it's a political sham and it's politically motivated. but this case in new york is not the only legal problem facing donald trump. chanting: stop the steal! two other criminal investigations are looking into his role in the storming of the capitol onjanuary 6 two years ago, after he lost the election, and attempts to overturn the results. # �*cos there ain't no doubt i love this land...

those inquiries could prove much more serious for the former president as he readies himself for another run at the white house. gary 0'donoghue, bbc news, new york. to find out what voters think of today's development in what's seen as donald trump's heartland, our correspondent nomia iqbal has been to boones mill in virginia. away from the spectacle of the courthouse in manhattan, this quiet part of virginia really loves donald trump. whitey, who owns the store, says this indictment is good for his pockets and trump's popularity. oh, it's only been positive and itjust sends all the sympathy to him. and it's what he — it plays right into his hands. they'll do anything to try to get — take down trump, so this proves it. the case that's been brought against donald trump, it's been decided by your fellow countrymen and women in new york, who are doing their civic duty.

but they're, uh...over—the—top liberals, yeah. they're just — they're just out to smear him any way they can, but it'll backfire on them. even sybil, the shop dog, is gearing up for 202a. people have travelled from outside of virginia state to get their trump merchandise. saw the store and wanted to stop �*cos i'm a trump supporter, and i'm even more of a trump supporter today than i was yesterday. tell me why. �*cos this stupid indictment. it's just politically motivated. when i heard it on tv last night, ijust — i could not believe it. but the only thing it's going to do isjust make the case stronger for — for trump. this indictment has clearly fired up donald trump's core supporters — the ones he relies on. some have said it's awakened the sleeping giant. but will it get him the votes he needs to win back the white house? no, i don't. you don't? no, i don't. interesting — why? uh... because...

i don't really think the american public will go for an indicted person. yes. he has for two elections, going on three. so, i wish the election was this november and not in '24. it's often asked is there a red line for donald trump's most ardent supporters? it would seem even becoming the first president ever to be indicted has made them more entrenched, not less. nomia iqbal, bbc news, virginia. earlier, i spoke to journalist and political commentator michael tracey. i asked him what public reaction has been like to trump's indictment. one of the chief reactions that's observable to anyone sort of monitoring the fallout here is that although elements of the republican party — especially republican elites, maybe some donors, maybe some former elected officials, even some of whom may have served in the trump administration — as much as they might�*ve been maybe

trending toward a desire to disassociate themselves from trump, you can see this having some sort of a galvanising effect where even somebody like a mike pence or a bill barr — obviously, the former being the previous vice president, the latter being the former attorney—general — who had had falling outs with trump, had and have rows with him to the point that trump would probably regard them as political nemeses, even they have come out and declared, basically, opposition to the sort of premise behind this particular prosecution or, at least, the pendency of this particular prosecution. and i think it's understandable, even leaving apart — you know, leaving aside the reaction of republican elites because this is a threshold—crossing event. as you've made clear in this report, there has been no president has ever been charged criminally before and so, and so, you'd expect that to be

prompted by an offence of a certain level of gravity or to be associated with some sort of transgression of significant magnitude. and if it really happens to be the case, as all indications seem to point to, that this stems, ultimately, from the payment of a confidential settlement sum to a former adult film actress, then maybe that's not quite what most people would've expected to really give rise to that crossing of the rubicon moment. and, michael, we know that donald trump is also running for 2024 presidency, so how has the indictment — how will the indictment impact all of this? well, it's very — it's impossible to say. you know, there are portions of the republican party electorate who you might expect would at least be open to arguments about how trump is not the most politically expedient choice for 2024, given maybe some of his baggage

or given some of the drama that just seems to engulf him constantly, but now that he could be portrayed as an emblem of kind of these efforts or machinations that are somewhat nefarious within the legal establishment or the security state or other aspects of the kind of governmental apparatus as being sort of marshalled unfairly against trump and, therefore, his wider movement, then you can see that also having a galvanising effect amongst those very same segments of the party coalition who might�*ve otherwise been receptive to overtures from maybe different republican candidates. trump was prosecuted — or there was a special prosecutor, let's remember authorised to investigate trump for years within his presidency on the ground that he had some salacious, illicit, treasonous relationship with the kremlin and therefore was guilty of, again, treason. that didn't pan out.

and so, there's — memories of that are still fresh and if now, this seems to just be another sort of instalment in that continuum of kind of never—ending attempts to legally take down trump, then you can see that engendering a certain kind of partisan reflex or a certain loyalty sort of gravitation toward trump in the way that maybe trump himself could not bring about if it wasn't him being positioned against the machinations of some sort of legal establishment against him. michael tracey. the governor of the southern us state of arkansas has declared a state of emergency after a tornado hit the state capital, little rock, causing significant damage. medical officials believe hundreds of people have been injured. 0ur reporter shelley phelps has more. 0h, oh, my god! it's coming!

ri -|n~ oh, my god! it's coming! ripping away _ oh, my god! it's coming! ripping away building - oh, my god! it's coming! l ripping away building tops, uprooting trees and flipping over vehicles, the catastrophic tornado started moving through little rock on friday afternoon. this was the moment afternoon. this was the moment a weather presenter spotted it while live on air, giving warnings to locals. here it is and could — warnings to locals. here it is and could be _ warnings to locals. here it is and could be a _ warnings to locals. here it is and could be a storm - warnings to locals. here it is i and could be a storm tornado, ef or stronger. this is exactly what we didn't want to happen. 0veraggressive or road at this time — 0veraggressive or road at this time. . , 0veraggressive or road at this time. ., , , ., time. ovaries reservoir road, it certainly _ time. ovaries reservoir road, it certainly looks _ time. ovaries reservoir road, it certainly looks like - time. ovaries reservoir road, it certainly looks like a - it certainly looks like a tornado. 0h it certainly looks like a tornado. oh my goodness. fist tornado. oh my goodness. at least five people have been confirmed as being in a critical condition but it's feared hundreds have been injured. debris lies scattered everywhere and more than 90,000 homes without power. this man told cbs news what he saw. through the window i saw this transformer back here that blew up, i saw that, the lightning striking it caught me off guard and i went into the bathroom

door and suddenly there was wind everywhere and it felt like the house was shaking and things were being thrown against it and it's something i've never experienced before. it comes just a week after a deadly tornado hit mississippi, killing 25 people. on friday, president idun visited one of the hardest—hit towns, rolling fork —— biden. the hardest-hit towns, rolling fork -- biden.— fork -- biden. today, i authorise _ fork -- biden. today, i authorise the _ fork -- biden. today, i authorise the federal i authorise the federal government to cover 100% of the cost for removing debris and emergency measures that are involved in keeping up here, keeping shelters up and running and paying for every, over time for everyone, 100% of the cost, not for the state for us for 30 days. and then after that, we're leaving, either. ——we are not leaving. we're leaving, either. --we are not leaving-— not leaving. similar help will be required _ not leaving. similar help will be required for _ not leaving. similar help will be required for the - not leaving. similar help will be required for the clean-up| not leaving. similar help will l be required for the clean-up in be required for the clean—up in arkansas and difficult hours lie ahead for the millions of people facing severe weather warnings across the south and midwest. shelley phelps, bbc news. a court in romania has agreed to allow the controversial

social media influencer andrew tate to leave prison and move into house arrest. the british—american former kickboxer has millions of online followers. he's being investigated for a variety of crimes, all of which he denies. tim allman reports. hello, andrew. freedom at last. too. it seemed almost like a hero's welcome as andrew tate returned to his home in romania. he wanted to stress he was also relieved and grateful. i want to give respect firstly to the judges who heard us today because they were very attentive and listened to us and let us reason i have to give absolute respect to them. i have no resentment in my heart for the country romania or anyone else. ijust believe in the truth. or anyone else. i 'ust believe in the numb or anyone else. i 'ust believe in the truth. andrew tate is a controversial _ in the truth. andrew tate is a controversial character. - in the truth. andrew tate is a controversial character. he i in the truth. andrew tate is a i controversial character. he has a huge following online and has previously been accused of misogyny. previously been accused of misogyny-— previously been accused of misogyny. previously been accused of miso n. k, ,., ., misogyny. it's been proven that the smartest — misogyny. it's been proven that the smartest people _ misogyny. it's been proven that the smartest people in - misogyny. it's been proven that the smartest people in the - the smartest people in the world are men. that's been proven. i see female infidelity

is more disgusting than male infidelity and i think the world agrees with me. then in december— world agrees with me. then in december last _ world agrees with me. then in december last year, _ world agrees with me. then in| december last year, romanian police raided his home. along with his brother and two local women, he is being investigated of allegations of rape, people trafficking and forming an organised crime group. he continues to deny any wrongdoing. i continues to deny any wrongdoing.— continues to deny any wronaudoin. , , wrongdoing. i truly believe that justice _ wrongdoing. i truly believe that justice will _ wrongdoing. i truly believe that justice will be - wrongdoing. i truly believe thatjustice will be served l wrongdoing. i truly believe l thatjustice will be served in the end. there is 0% chance of me being found guilty of something i have not done. i maintain my absolute innocence and i think most people understand these and i look forward to being home. the two brothers have _ forward to being home. the two brothers have been _ forward to being home. the two brothers have been forbidden i brothers have been forbidden from contacting any witnesses and cannot leave the house without approval from the authorities. no charges have yet been brought. andrew tate says he will now focus on reading the koran and doing push—ups. tim allman, bbc news. stay with us on bbc world news. still to come — a warning that the rapidly melting ice in antarctica is slowing down deep ocean currents which could have a devastating

impact on the world's climate. the accident that happened here was of the sort that can, at worst, produce a meltdown. in this case, the precautions worked, but they didn't work quite well enough to prevent some old fears about the safety features of these stations from resurfacing. the republic of ireland has become the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. from today, anyone lighting up in offices, businesses, pubs and restaurants will face a heavy fine. the president was on his way out of— the washington hilton hotel, where he had been addressing a trade union conference. - a small crowd outside| included his assailant.

it has become a symbol of paris. 100 years ago, many parisians wished it had never been built. the eiffel tower's birthday is being marked by a re—enactment of the first ascent by gustave eiffel. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: donald trump's legal team say he's �*angry but not worried' after becoming the first former president to face criminal charges, he'll surrender to a court in new york on tuesday. the governor of the us state of arkansas has declared a state of emergency after a large and destructive tornado hits the capital little rock. 70,000 people are reported to have lost power in the state. turning now to ukraine, and president volodymyr zelensky has led ceremonies

in bucha on the first anniversary of its liberation from russian forces. bucha, a suburb to the north west of kyiv was the focus of fierce fighting and has come to symbolise alleged war crimes carried out by russian forces. from there here's our correspondent hugo bachega. president zelensky came here to mark this day one year since the ukrainian forces recaptured this town that was occupied by russian forces and bucha has become the symbol of the atrocities committed by russian forces here in this country. we came here to the street where dozens of bodies were found and i think images of those bodies lying on the ground here shocked all of us and they have become a symbol of the brutality of the occupation here. and not only the execution of these people, many of the civilians were trying to visit relatives, were trying to flee the city when they were killed but there

were allegations of torture, allegations of rape but now here in bucha there is a massive effort to collect evidence of those potential war crimes, international investigators, activists, volunteers are here collecting evidence and there is also a massive effort to rebuild what has been destroyed. houses have been rebuilt, also the roads, shops, but one thing that perhaps cannot be rebuilt and that is the psychological impact of the atrocities that were committed here, the trauma of the violence that was committed by the occupying forces in this town. let's get some of the day's other news. at least 11 people have died in a stampede in pakistan, as residents flocked to collect rations at a factory during the muslim holy month of ramadan. initial reports say a woman and two children were among those killed in the city of karachi. it's not immediately clear what led to the crush.

more than a hundred fires are continuing to burn in parts of northern spain, although many of them are now under control. the authorities say most of the fires, centred in the region of astuurius, were started by arsonists. hundreds of people fled the area and a number of roads were closed. king charles has laid a wreath by the spire of church in hamburg in northern germany that was largely destroyed by allied bombing during the second world war. the gesture is being seen as an important symbol of re—conciliation. the port was one of the most heavily bombed german cities of the war. rapidly melting ice in the antarctic is slowing down deep ocean currents dramatically and could have devastating consequences on the global climate. that's according to scientists writing in the journal nature. they say ice melts are driving a substantial slowdown

of water circulation. this could trap nutrients in the deep ocean, reducing their ability to support marine life near the ocean surface. earlier i spoke to ted scambos, an antarctic ice expert and senior research scientist at university of colorado. he shared his concerns about sea ice melting in antarctic. it has been an interesting and important trend in the last several decades, that antarctica's ocean circulation has changed, the coldest waters are not as cold as they used to be and in fact the surface circulation or near—surface circulation is also changing and as a result we are seeing less sea ice, at least in the last few years and it is an important change for the ecosystems as well, because of the lower nutrient content in the deep ocean and changes in the circulation

of the upper ocean, it is concerning and another manifestation of climate change reaching the very farthest corners of the planet. and the findings of this research suggest the deepest parts of the ocean could actually slow down by 40% in only three decades, so how significant is the speed of the slowdown here and just talk me through some of the implications? this water actually does rest deep on the seabed of the deepest parts of the ocean around the world and in fact it is a place that traps quite a bit of heat from global warming elsewhere. it is not of immediate concern in terms of, say, weather changes because this water sits in the bottom of the ocean. over the long—term it is going to change circulation in other areas and will change

the character of places that see upwelling of this water that tend to be very active fisheries, places where there is a lot of life and a lot of economic activity. and let's look ahead now to the possible measures and what solutions you think should be put in place to tackle climate change. i think tackling climate change is incredibly important. solving this particular issue would be a huge task in any other method than reducing co2 emissions or actually removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and trying to cool off the earth a bit. by that means, any sort of technical approach at this scale is just really hard to imagine. you look at a map and maybe you think that antarctica is a faraway place and perhaps not so big. it is a huge area, larger than australia, as large as the united states

and mexico combined, trying to adjust what is going on along the coastline of such an area and even into the deep ocean truly is beyond the reach of what we can do technically. our best answer is to reduce our carbon consumption and emission into the atmosphere and begin actually to remove it from the sphere if we can find an efficient way to do that. next week it's the 25th anniversary of the historic good friday peace deal in northern ireland — but it comes as political leaders condemn an outbreak of violence which has seen a series of attacks on homes linked to a drugs feud. emma vardy reports. in broad daylight, masked men pursuing a fight over turf and drug money. this was the scene yesterday in one of four towns affected, as a school and nursery nearby were advised to lock their doors. and this afternoon, a man was assaulted by a masked gang in a shopping centre. in nightly attacks on homes, petrol bombs have been thrown through windows, a pipe bomb was used and properties have

been smashed with hammers. many had children inside. these attacks are incredibly reckless, and place our communities at grave risk. and we are working closely with our colleagues in the paramilitary crime task force to counter the threat posed by these gangs. what is the impact of attacks on homes like that? a number of people have left their home and obviously, that has a significant impact on them, their children and their wider family circumstances. the disorder has been linked to what is believed to be around 50 members who've been expelled from the loyalist paramilitary group the uda. decades ago, loyalist paramilitaries were involved in the conflict in northern ireland known as the troubles, attacking catholic communities in sectarian violence. but today, the organisations have largely become gangs involved in the drugs trade. there has been a three—year—old girl in a house that was attacked. an elderly woman had her windows put in. a petrol bomb being thrown through a window into a living

room where, 15 minutes previously, a ten—month—old baby was crawling around. as we returned to the town of newtonards last night, masked men holding bricks were guarding houses. violence from armed groups continues in republican communities, too. we hear about a victim being taken to hospital not far away in west belfast. police received a report of a man being shot in both legs in this street here, a so—called paramilitary style attack, the kind of which still happens pretty regularly. northern ireland's about to mark 25 years since the peace deal, which largely ended the conflict. but paramilitary groups continue to exercise control over some communities. the issue with the loyalist paramilitaries is they continued to recruit young people into their ranks. they are being groomed and sucked into these paramilitary crime gangs and then they are used as foot soldiers when something like this happens. and while the violence sparked by this turf war remains on a much lower level

than the feuds of the past, in this significant year for northern ireland, there is a renewed desire to find better ways to weaken the groups behind it. emma vardy, bbc news. well, thank you very much for joining me on bbc news. hello. for many parts of the uk, march turned out to be a wet month, not least across england, where, according to provisional met office statistics, it was the wettest march since 1981. but it wasn't that wet everywhere, in fact, there were parts of northern scotland where we had less rain than normal. these figures, 56% of the average, cover the period up to the morning of friday, the 31st. compare that with cambridge, which had seen more than three times the normal march rainfall. but for the start of april through the weekend, it looks like things are going to become drier and brighter. quite a slow process, though, because the weekend starts with low pressure in charge. a couple of different weather fronts providing a focus for some outbreaks of rain.

this front here providing some particularly persistent rain through the morning across parts of northern ireland, parts of wales, the south—west of england, central southern england as well. a lot of that rain will tend to peter out. i think northern ireland is likely to stay cloudy and damp through the day. elsewhere, quite a lot of cloud, some spots of rain, some mist and murk. and with this easterly breeze, it'll feel rather cool for some of these north sea coasts. further west, temperatures between 10—13 celsius, and there could just be a few glimmers of sunshine. most places will be pretty cloudy. now, we will keep fairly large amounts of cloud as we head through saturday night, but i think we'll see a few more clear spells around, some clearer skies, certainly filtering into eastern parts of england later in the night. temperatures generally between 2—7 celsius. very locally, there could be a touch of frost. but for sunday, we see high pressure tending to build, and that means some drier and somewhat brighter weather. now, there will still be some areas of cloud around, perhaps most especially across western scotland, northern ireland, wales, the south—west of england. but equally there should be some spells of sunshine, the best of that a little

bit further east. temperatures, well, no great shakes on the face of it, but at this time of year, there is some strength in the sun. so get yourself into some sunshine, it will not feel too bad. 0ur area of high pressure tries to hold on into the start of the new week. we will see frontal systems making some inroads from the atlantic. so, that means we will see, perhaps, some rain at times through the middle of the week, particularly towards the north and the west of the uk. at this early stage, and it is still a long way away, the signs for the easter weekend are quite promising.

this is bbc news. the headlines: lawyers for donald trump say he will surrender to a court in new york on tuesday after becoming the first former us president to face criminal charges. his legal team say he's angry, but not worried about the case which concerns hush payments made to a porn star. the governor of the us state of arkansas has declared a state of emergency after a tornado hit the state capital, little rock, causing significant damage. officials say at least two dozen people have been sent to hospital and tens of thousands of residents are without power. a court in romania has allowed the controversial social media influencer, andrew tate, to leave prison and move into house arrest. the 36—year—old, his brother and two romanian women